A chilly November night provided ideal weather for families visiting the Trailside Museum of Natural History for an evening of fall activities Nov. 6.

Visitors to the museum were treated to a starry night full of campfire stories, roasted marshmallows and scavenger hunts along the trails as the museum hosted its annual family night.

"Each year, we try new things and we offered s'mores and hot cocoa and a flashlight scavenger hunt," said Trailside Museum Assistant Director Irene Flebbe. "People were given a flashlight they could keep and they used them to find glow-in-the-dark animals along the trail. It was perfect campfire weather and a perfect night all around."

Inside the museum, kids were able to make craft owl pencil toppers and owl hats, while museum staff showed off some of the museum's animal residents.

"Kids and adults got to see some of the things our animals like to eat and how we prepare food for them," Flebbe said. "People really enjoyed petting a snake or a turtle. The whole point was to give them a little taste and flavor of these types of programs and activities available at our nature centers."

A version of this article appeared in print on November 12, 2015, in the Franklin Park Herald-Journal section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Trailside offers a twilight adventure" —
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